Charlie J. spent a whole lot of time harping on about how Dubai Ports would bring death and destruction if their attempt at purchasing a number of US container ports off P&O went ahead. The logic was: Dubai = Arab country = Terrorists. Simple.
So what will the Lizard King(tm) have to say about the case of Check Point Software, who today abandoned their bid to buy Sourcefire because of security concerns among top US government officials?
London - When a $6.8 billion ports deal is sunk, what chance does a $225 million software takeover have?
Check Point Software Technologies (nasdaq: CHKP - news - people ), an Israeli company that designs systems to protect corporate data, formally withdrew its proposal Thursday to buy smaller U.S. rival Sourcefire because of national security objections by the Bush administration. The Israeli company had been told U.S. officials feared that the transaction could compromise the security of some of the government's most sensitive computer systems.
According to one media report, Check Point's legal eagles had offered to bolt on extra conditions to the sale to appease the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., but to no avail. The Treasury Department, which oversees the review panel, formally accepted Check Point's request to withdraw from the review, which spares it the task of submitting recommendations to President George W. Bush on whether to block the deal.
A media report suggests the objections by the FBI and Pentagon were partly over software known as Snort, which guards some classified U.S. military and intelligence computers. Gil Shwed, Check Point's chief executive--who has been dubbed the Bill Gates of Israel--was less sure what the U.S. government's concerns were as specifics were never disclosed publicly. "All I can say is that the process had achieved a degree of complexity we felt we could do without," he was quoted as saying.
Check Point could also be the victim of bad timing. It announced it would acquire Columbia, Md.-based Sourcefire in October, and the deal came under scrutiny last month, about the same time U.S. Congress was kicking up a stink over the proposal to have Dubai-based DP World operate six major U.S. ports.
Do I hear crickets...?
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